Vegan Banana Bread Recipe: For Your Cold Winter Days- Or Anytime, Dammit!

I asked AJ what his favorite thing I've ever cooked for him was and he surprised me by saying "Banana Bread!" It's simple comfort food, but nothing beats a gorgeous loaf of banana bread fresh out of the oven, especially on a cold winter day with a big mug of tea or coffee. If we have it for breakfast the whole loaf pretty much disappears! Here's how I make it. This version has no eggs, added sugar or milk, and it's beautifully moist from the coconut oil!

Ingredients

1) 4 Over-ripe bananas (bananas spotted brown are best for more moisture and sugar content)
2) 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
3) 1/2 Cup Coconut Oil (you can sub for safflower, sunflower, almond, or olive)
4) 1.5 TSP Baking Powder
5) 1/2 TSP Baking Soda
6) Pinch of Salt, optional
7) 1/2 TSP to 1 TSP Ground Cinnamon
8) Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
9) Pinch of ginger powder (optional)
10) 1-2 TSP Vanilla Extract

Tools: Baking Pan, Sifter (I use a cup and a fine mesh strainer), blender, handheld immersion blender OR something to mash your bananas and coconut oil together

Directions

Step 1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then sift your flour, baking soda, and baking powder well because any lumps will show up in the bread. Set this aside for later.

Step 2) Mix your bananas, coconut oil, extract and spices together completely in a large bowl. I use my Vitamix blender here because it mixes my bananas and coconut oil together completely, quickly, and beautifully, but you can mash it together by hand or use any other blender.

Step 3) Pour your dry mixture over your wet mixture and gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Don't over-mix it, it's ready as soon as all the dry ingredients are well incorporated into the wet. From there, pour your ingredients in a creased bread pan.

Step 4) Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes. Check on the bread by inserting a toothpick, it's ready when it comes out clean.

Recipe Adapted from Vegan Recipes of India, everything on her site looks delicious!

This bread is best devoured entirely while it's still warm. The coconut oil in this bread can become more "dense" or harden at room temperature, just slightly warm it before serving to bring it back to the wonderfully soft, fluffy texture. This bread is especially delicious with one of my savory vegan lattes, homemade nut milk or digestion-boosting chai tea! Above you can see we enjoyed ours with big blueberry smoothies and malty fermented pu'erh tea. Oh man, just writing this I want to make another loaf and eat the whole thing. Wrapped in two blankets and sipping tea. Because I am a silly Floridian and the 30s is too, too cold for me!

What's your favorite go-to for winter eating? I had a one-day bread cheat but I'm actually on an all-plant (as in, literally only plants like lentils and sweet potatoes, no gluten/tofu/processed vegan food) and it's been amazingly delicious.

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